The 59-storey tower, one of seven to be built around the world, has been built in collaboration with former Formula 1 champion Schumacher, and is described as "branded architecture’s next step".

The following is from LAVA:

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MSWCT

Future Living – Michael Schumacher Tower launched in Abu Dhabi

Today at Dubai cityscape, Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher presents the design for The Michael Schumacher World Champion Tower, the first in a series of seven towers to be built worldwide. A unique concept envisioned by Joachim Swensson, founder of branding specialists PNYG:COMPANY, the building represents branded architecture’s next step.

“The Tower marks a departure from traditional architectural thinking,” state the architects Chris Bosse and Tobias Wallisser. The tower designers represent a new generation of architects. Being responsible as associate architects for world recognised structures such as the Water cube in Beijing and the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Germany.

Just one year ago, they founded LAVA, the Laboratory for Visionary Architecture, a worldwide architectural network, together with architect Alexander Rieck, innovation expert at the Fraunhofer institute in Stuttgart.

“The project brings together our previous experiences, the Mercedes-Benz Museum, a brand-owned museum with an extraordinary spatial concept exploring the latest digital design and fabrication technologies with the Water cube Beijing, an example of the highest performance of both the building and the athletes, creating by a stunning atmosphere developed through the deliberate morphing of molecular science, architecture and phenomenology”, says Chris Bosse.

Inspired by the geometrical order of a snowflake and the aerodynamics of a Formula 1 racing car, the tower encapsulates speed, fluid dynamics, future technology and natural patterns of organisation. Rather than purely mimicking shapes in nature for their elegance and unpredictability, the architects learned from nature’s own geometrical orders creating highly efficient structures and intriguing spaces.

“We let the design unfold as a result of the project’s needs: optimal natural light and air distribution, maximum views, minimal structure, user comfort and an unrivalled water experience”, explains Tobias Wallisser. The organisational principle of a minimal surface allowed the optimisation of the facade/floor area ratio and each apartment in the 59 storey luxury tower has unobstructed ocean views.

“The unique collaboration with Michael Schumacher gave us new insights. Technology, precision, speed, elegance, paired with human intuition and extraordinary performance were a great source of inspiration for the design. Similar to the formula one operation, construction is a team sport with a lot of highly skilled experts. In this sense the architects take the driver seat in the process, taking the project to the physical limits of possibility”, adds Alexander Rieck.

The lower levels of the tower, traditionally the most difficult and least attractive area, has been reinterpreted as a series of prestigious wharf apartments, terraced similar to that of cruise ship decks. By widening the base, the tower is anchored into its surrounding water basin similar to the surrounding mangroves and nearby canals. The top Sky villas offer 270-degree views opposite the new cultural district on Saadyiat Island.

The building features an iconic silhouette and a facade characterised by vertical slots with private balconies. A series of reflective fins generates a vertical dynamic and gives the building a constantly changing appearance. The fins track the sun, control the solar shading and dissolve the rationality of the plan into a continuously evolving building volume. The facade’s continuous surface enables curvature with a lot of repetition and the potential for standardisation in the building process. State-of-theart engineering and innovative materials will be used to achieve a fully sustainable performance.

The Tower Ground Breaking will be at the beginning of 2009, with a completion date around June 2011.
Client: Vedera Capital|Marasi
Concept: PNYG:COMPANY, Dubai
Architecture: LAVA (Laboratory for Visionary Architecture),
Stuttgart|Sydney with Wenzel+Wenzel, Abu Dhabi
www.l-a-v-a.net

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Formula One is appearently the business in Dubai,... So where are the rest of sic cities where this type of tower may build? USA or Australia, perhaps in China? Donno if there is a demands for in the current financial crisis...

b kelley

unmemorable.

primo

is this a joke?

matt

"In this sense the architects take the driver seat in the process, taking the project to the physical limits of possibility”

never read something that stupid
fortunately, the client stills being the gasoline station
i hope this project will run out of oil

One

must be, but the guy has so much money...

m rowley

Is Michael trying to compensate for something? ;-)

ongjunhao

what on earth?

Tyler.

BLAH

*MIRTEC*

looks more like two tubes of sugar than like a formula1-car ;-)
and I didn't know michael was that succesfull as a brand... just a few steps away from david hasselhoff

Evan Jones

Schumacher the race driver as architectural inspiration? If the project were changed suddenly from Michael Schumacher World Champion Tower to Tiger Woods Tower, could they change the bullshit and submit the exact same design? Sarah Palin demonstrates a more intelligible command of English. How does a design encapsulate future technology? Does it encapsulate metaphorical technology? And not to make too fine a point of it, but snow flakes are hexagonal in structure, though perhaps not hexagonal in their morphed phenomenology, whatever that might be. This building is triangular. Count the sides. A cube could as easily be inspired by the "geometrical order" of snowflakes as by the strength and clean lines of Michael Schumacher. Let's hope the answer to primo's question is yes.

Very sexy shapes. But like everything in Dubai, is about how much money they have!

Michael

Actually, I think this is the first design in this category that makes sense. Architecture has seemingly lost its place in its place. The neighborhood, city, region, are all unimportant in design. We construct towers that could be built anywhere because they ignore all their external stimuli.

Why not become more efficient and design a series of identical towers. Because place does not matter, this tower can go ANYWHERE. They went a step further and put it in 7 locations. This is just massive, highly visible branding. Surely you can appreciate that attitude over a one-time ego trip that could belong anywhere.

Név*

"Michael Schumacher World Champion Tower" (????)
Holy crap!!! :O

Zaha

Guys...please... calm down.

charles

no Zaha.
no.

dl

looks like frank gehry's proposal for the NY Times...

William

i bet those boat berths gonna be EXPENSIVE!!!!!

thcpet

in dubai any is shit buildable.

rem koolhaas

well...... ,
it looks better than any tower i've ever done thats for sure!
i can only do boxes its a curse.

Rem In Dubai

Have you even been in Dubai? There is very little extraordinary things happening there, a lot of development but only 20 year old designs. Thats why there is a big push for better more extravagant designs.

Branding might be the only way to build insane structures. As for the shape? Who cares? it looks awesome!

Jean Nouvel

C'est tres beau, mais pas assez dark. Il nous faudrait une tour comme cela a Monaco.
It's really nice to see that a new generation of digital architects are well decided to build up and not to fill the web with crazy un-buildable blobs.

Very interesting projects on their website.

I can see a lot of potential in the wharf apartments, something between Venice mixed with Hong Kong and New York, nice relationship with water . At least these guys are dealing with the site, it is anchored in the water and that's a new way to address a shore line.
Hopefully the 7 other towers would be as different as the geometry of snowflakes.

gaque

i am actually laughing out loud at that napkin sketch and straw wrapper model....!

mama

Another Dubai tower? Yaaaawn....

yrag

I think it's a really fine looking high rise, but I don't see the point in saddling a fresh design (obviously others don't agree) with this goofy "Michael Schumacher World Champion" thing. What's one of the perks of this place? A bed in the shape of a Formula One? A sink in the shape of a hub cap? In ten years who's going to care (or know) Michael Schumacher?

jean

supercool
totally relaxed!

Bjorn Lacoste

Obviously sport men are a good source of income and of branding in the real world.
Strangely architects or maybe students in architecture are so ignorant that they don't know, Rene Lacoste and Bjorn Borg were sportsmen before becoming iconic brands.
In which world do you live guys, seriously, I bet none of you ever went to the UEA or even knows the difference between Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Muscat ?

I bet most of you are just or are about to become cad monkeys for their entire life in some old fashion crappy office in the middle of nowhere, designing public schools, gas station, or butcheries.

Santiago Calatrava

Olé! Olé! A mi gusta mucho!
Could not have designed it better myself!

Martin

Bjorn, I understand that Schumacher was/is an iconic sportsperson but I would question what he has to do with UEA, skyscrapers or *anything* aside from F1 and motorsport. I guess the people who want to market this project had a budget and a list of names.. Michael might have been top of the list. I guess the marketing people think theyre getting value for money. It doesn't make the situation any less ridiculous though.

You lose your bet: I for one am not a cad monkey, I work in a nice office in a nice city thank you and I don't design public schools, gas stations or butcheries (all of which are arguably more valuable to society than a speculative appartment block).

Jasiek

EY!
public schools, gas stations and butcheries are way cool!

atomant

i bet tiger woods, fed and maybe just maybe bolt was in the list of names too hahaahahaha

Bernard Tschumi

Cher Martin,

You definitely don't understand anything about the UEA.

First of all it is the only place on the planet at the moment where you can find money, architecture and the political power to achieve a real cosmopolitan 21th century where islam meets christianity and hindou in a peaceful coexistence, something that the western world assumed was destroyed after 9/11.

Second, Formula 1 races are as big as the soccer World Cup or the Olympics around the world, maybe not in your posh liberal middle class suburb, mon cher Martin (tennis, squash ?), but still it is with golf, flying Cessna and boating Riva, the favorite sport of the upper middle class and surely the tradesmen, which means high rate investments and good taste for high technology (something missing for some of you).

Third the UEA have the money, the energy and the political enlightenment to look for alternative and green technologies, because all the visionary engineers and architects around the decadent western world can work there to find solutions for tomorrow. There are jobs, and opportunities beyond your imagination.

Fourth and last to be able to start designing a public school, a butchery or a gas station, you need First to build a city with apartment block and roads.

Mon cher, properties and investment come first before retails, you should know that if you have sometimes meeting with your client.

oil and wheels

I doubt the architects were the ones who presented the idea of branding it with the schumacher label. Developers often have these brilliant ideas.

And isn't racing bigger the more money and oil a country has? Maybe the go crazy for racers down there? I don't know, never been over to that area of the world.

corb

i think it is remarkable how much nonsense can be written in such a short time.
and how much great architecture comes out of young firms.

LAVA you rock!

world you watch!

backseatcommentators you comment!

Bruce

The oil killed the architecture and the design overall...terrible building inspired by a terrible person, I hate it!

Who do you think you are armeyn ? Who's boring ?
Your work is so rubbish you wouldn't even work for a third rate architect in Europe.

Feronso Almondi

Looks amazing. I would definitely do that tower.

axl rose

dudes whats going on? no more smartass comments?
back to hatching toilet blocks in autocad light?

boy who cries wolf

I like how everyone here is soooo senitive.

Stefan

this tower is planned on the same planet where humen got a finincial crisis and some serious climate trouble right???

future

no back to grasshopper and alias ... cool design

Past present

Yes Stefan, the same planet, but on the other side, where people are not brain washed and paralyze by guilt and fear, so they can't think to find different solutions....

Stefan

Nice Point Past present but what seems to be more "brain washed" for you? To think about new solutions IN the context of our social and economical situation or to build a design tower which looks like student design visions from 1999?
In fact i like organic and fluid forms and i really like aesthetic experiments doesnt matter if the form makes much sense btw. just to try to go some steps further is an brilliant idea in times where many views stuck and cant be moved... but please... who in this world asked for a big scale project which has nothing really new to it...?

Diegs

Stefan, you have the emotions of a child it seems. Or possibly not enough experience on this planet. Personally, I'd love to see this project a go. I'd also love to see you're idealistic proposal put to paper!

Stefan

emotions of a child because of ...?
well let me put it in another way... facade experiments are always interesting... but a small city hall would be more appropriate to do so... big structure experiments are interesting as well... but then i want to see a real structure not jsut some lines which looks like they could be adapted from nature... in fact this project is not half as intelligent as it looks like... so it is not structure experiment it is facade experiment... and when it comes down to the intention it looks like they just need to build something big... so it is more or less a social thing not even a facade thing... and in the next step they just build it without reflect what they can move in social aspects so in the end its a big tower which will afect its sourrounding in random ways... but ok! tell me things about child emotions again please ;-)

It's both encouraging to see the big names posting to this blog in response to LAVA's work, and amusing to read the comments by the commentariat. Just wait till these people see the non-orthogonal designs that were documented by Dr Vollers of The Netherlands, at the recent CFTBH conference.

If you have difficulties with this design, wait till you see the Free Shapers, Sliding Twisters and Intersecting helical twisters design categories on the drawing board. I say give these guys a break, if they have already had one of their collaborative projects successfully translated into a LEGO design, then thay have something going for them. Until those out there with problems can say that you have achieved this yourselves, then pull you head in.

I think this design is pretty cool, but the term buildability needs to be remembered, spare a thought for your Engineers and Sub-Contractors.

GIGISHUKAKIDZE

michael must drive and architecure must happen, but they together we saw upward is not impossible!

GIGISHUKAKIDZE

Stefan read SMLXL and calm down!

ex uts

unsw graduate who are you?
smart person obviously....
see you at d city launch?

scarpasez

It looks like a Chess Rook, and is almost lovely, but the triangular symmetry eliminates any sense of surprise.

Sirs
Its a beauty.
We wish we could have one of the seven in Kerala- Trivandrum- INDIA ( one of
the most beautiful place on the planet.)
There is our Prime land (50 acres - 2million sqft of lake front& sea on the otherside . The Trivandrum airport is 3.5 km from our property.
We invite Mr Schumacher and Lava to visit us and be our guests
the Govt of kerala can sent you an official invite.
The Dubai-Middle East is 3hrs flight from Kerala
Kindly reply. Thankyou
truly. Vijayaraghavan Deepak Kumar Chairman 1000thope. from Chennai India

laila

6 pointed star in UAE
indeed :)

Sini kal

Not a lot has been said in the last few months; what happened- did the credit crunch have the desired effect and put this one on the back-burner?

Pernell

Alright, Schumacher is going BIG!!!, despite of what others think.... Its cool, i mean, if i was a Formula 1 7 times World Champion, im damn sure i'd build 7 freaking nice towers around the world, this guy is making money and who cares!?!?! Its all about business, ofcourse most of the people dont understand what big business are, however, it has to be done, this is not only a 7 tower project, its work/jobs for a lot of people, investment, development and so much more, and... i think the desing is awesome.

vinny

so Micheal is bak in f1 for the 2010 season. what happens if he wins this year they have to build another tower somewhere else in the world!! what purpose? it is a great architecture but i dont think micheals name should be involved.i been his fan for a long time and this is just bringing his popularly down, whether he has anything to do with it or not, it looks like a jerk way to show that he won 7 f1 world titles! were the actual trophies not enough??

Future architecture is not only about crying hoarse the Green Environment propaganda but also about the synergy of the holistic progression of mankind and using technological advent to the convenience aspects of (wo)man.

Erdem

There is plenty of space in Dubai, so why bother with a skyscraper? I think "Fluid Dynamics", "Aerodynamics" and "Speed" makes more sense on a horizontal setting.
To add more, instead of building another skyscraper for the riches in Dubai, Schumacher should give his name to something more beneficial, like Ayrton Senna did.